Puma versus Paradox
by Haissan
Summary: An Origional Character Story set in the Universe that is known as "The Matrix" Two New Chapters are up! I wanted to expand a little. Please Review. Edit As of Chapter three I rearranged the Chapters to a more catchy order.
1. How Did I Get Here?

Chris lays back on his bunk in his cell, thinking about the events that have transpired over the last three hours. He was sitting at his computer, hacking into the Lucas Arts servers stealing the final cuts of Star Wars Episode Two. The movie won't be released for another month, but he wanted to give people the opportunity to see it before then. His screen went black just as he managed to get through the security barriers, fearing it was a back hack he immediately unplugged his computer from it's power supply, but letters began to appear on the blank monitor surface anyway. It was a warning for him to leave his place and get as far as he could in ten minutes, he was just targeted.

_Christ,_ Chris thought to himself, _I must be asleep._ He decided not to leave, and true to the words on the screen, the police had him on his face in a matter of 11 minutes. It took sixty seconds for those assholes to get to his room after arriving at his house.

A man in a black and white suit walked up to me cooly, and asked me, "You are the one known as Habeus when you are stealing data am I correct?."

I merely looked at the agent sternly and snort at him.

"Keep him his own cell, we will need him for further questioning." The Agent instructs the sergent in charge.

I look around my dank and boring cell again, _nothing useful_, I think to myself.

There is the bunk, three solid concrete walls, and bars on the side that isn't painted/reinforced concrete. In the corner opposite my bed, far from the cell door, a toilet with no seat sits, it was clean to my suprise. The silver flush button above it on the wall provided no clues for my aide. The two armed police men that were always outside my cell would only sneer at me, even when I tried to talk to them. They would not talk amongst themselves either.

_What could make this situation worse?_ I think to myself.

The door at the end of the hall adjoining this cell block opens, and a man wearing a long red coat and yellow sunglasses eases into the room. _This guy looks like a character from an anime._ Chris grins, _He looks like a gunslinger._ The guards draw their weapons and point them at the coated man.

"You aren't authorized to come in here." One guard shouts.

A red blur crosses infront of the coat, and the guards promtly stumble and fall unconscious. Small needles are protruding from between their fingers where they grasped their throats.

The man looks at me and says. "Do you want out of this prison, Habeus?"

I promptly look at him from beneath my bed. "How do I know that you aren't going to hurt me, shouldn't you at least introduce yourself first. Second, how do you know me by that name?"

"Excuse my rudeness," the man says, "I am Puma, and I was the one who warned you, obviously, you did not listen." Puma stoops over the body of one of the guard and relieves him of his key ring. He unlocks the cell door, but does not open it.

I look at him weirdly while sliding open the cell door, "How did you get through all those police?"

He only walks to the door he came in from and leads me through a maze of passages until we end up in an office area. Everyone looks dead, they all have needles protruding from their bodies.

_That answers my question._ I think to myself.

When we reach the front door, Puma turns to me and says. "It's nothing personal, but I'm sorry." I get a glimpse of the array of needles and other thrown projectiles within his coat just before I feel a prick in my ass, and then the world goes black.


	2. Dialing Out

Chris groggily awakened from his chemically induced slumber. The first thing that came to his mind was, _Those damn dreams again._ He opened his eyes and realised that he did not have a dream.

His first impression of the room made him think these people were a bunch of tech junkies. Monitors and electronic equipment were strewn about the room, and the room itself was antiquidated. Old moth eaten rugs covered th floor, and the red drapes hanging over windows were covered in what appeared to be twice their weight in dust. Of course, these observations were not the first to fill his mind. The first thing he notcied was the .38 special pointed at his grape. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

The man who introduced himself as Puma spoke first, "Ah, you're awake; I thought the dosage I gave you was too high and we would be here another couple of hours." Puma gestures around the room. "We're all friends here, so there is no need to worry about Dante there with his little toy. It's only for our safty, really. Oh my, I forgot, I should introduce you to everyone. This is Paradox." Puma points to a man sitting behind a pile of monitors. Paradox only gives a quick look up from the screens before getting back to his rapid fire keystrokes.

"These other two here are Dante and Artanus; the rest of the crew are aboard the Neferti." Artanus finishes checking connections, removes a phone from it's hook, and promptly places it on a weird looking device. Dantes doesn't even move a milimeter from his posistion.

Chris can only shake his head in disbelief, everyone had such odd names. Not only their names, but they all wore their sunglasses indoors. When he came to senses he asks Puma, "Did you pull me from prison only to put a bullet in my head?"

Puma laughs at his remark, "No, we won't kill you unless we have to; besides, you've been a prisoner since the day you were born and we only want to give you the chance to break out." Puma empties a small black box into his hand. Two small pills spill into his hand.

Chris Laughs at the gesture. "If youthink I am some kind of Junkie looking for a trip, then be wary that I take pride in what I put in my body."

Puma pauses for a moment, then says, "You ruined the moment. This is where you decide if you want to stay in prison. I was going to say, 'If you take the blue pill, I put you back in that happy little cell and you become Bubba's new best friend. The red pill leads you to freedom.' But no, you interrupted me." Puma grins slightly under his yellow glasses.

Chris considers for a moment and says, "What if I don't take a pill?"

"Then Dante here squeezes the trigger and says 'Sweet Dreams', the gun goes off, your brains get splattered, the floor get bloody, and you get dead. Okay?" Puma does a perky-happy kind of smile and tone at Chris with 'Okay?'.

Chris shudders and looks across the barrel to Dante, who merely glares at him. He looks up at Puma, and reaches for the red pill. "Remember I can only show you the door, You have to walk through it, Habeus." Puma says in his most serious tone.

Chris swallows the pill, and the equipment around him set into motion. He feels a numbing tingle and he finally awakens inside what can only be described as a womb, suspended in a red viscous liquid something. Movement takes every effort for his arms and legs. He tries to sit up, and the back of his head begins to ache along with his eyes. He hears a whirring sound, and what he sees next makes him faint back into unconsciousness.

Puma stares at the empty chair were Chris sat. "May the Gods speed you." He answers the ringing telephone, and follows Dante, Paradox, and Artanis to the Neferti.


	3. Puma Vs Paradox Showdown

_Paradox has been freed much longer than Puma, infact Puma is still so low in rank that he helps the newer recruits in adjusting to their new enviroment. Enjoy this little show, I loved writing it._

_Both Puma and Paradox are OCs. _

Puma logs into the Dojo training program, bored out of his mind, a consequence of having a slight case of ADD. He doesn't dress in his usual attire of a red coat and such, but he does have the traditional garb of kendo masters, in red of course. He spent nearly and hour downloading everything that he could about known kendo fighting styles.  
One of his favorites involved pure speed. It was a powerful technique that required allot of practice and concentration.  
He retrieves the densest sword he can get from the program, if measured in the real world it weigh about 700 lbs. he handled it as if it was bout 5 1/2 lbs.  
Being that the rules could be broken and others could be bent he mastered lifting heavy objects and speed. He could not make changes in the matrix as Neo could but he sure as hell could give Neo a good fight if necessary.  
_Enough about fantasizing _Puma thinks to himself, _you could never be a match for Neo, the Agents are just toys to him and well to be frank you have never taken the chance to fight with a real agent._

Puma takes a deep breath and starts to swing his sword in a form. He executes it perfectly. This time let's take it up a notch. Puma then does the form at his highest speed and sets himself up for decreasing his handling on the weapon to make it seem heavier. He does this one perfectly as well. He stops doing forms and begins to train, starting from a basic stance to a down slash and a thrust, to a whole sequence of attacks and blocks. If you were not freed or if you weren't an agent all you could see would be a red blur and bright flashes of silver for he was moving at his best controlled speed.  
Puma stops and throws his sword at the concrete wall side of the dojo, and it flies right through the wall as if it were butter. The sword was stuck down to its collar in the wall which made the wall seem to be of an infinite thickness.

Paradox enters the dojo, dressed in the white karate gi of his Shotokan order. His fourth dan black belt was tied loosely around his waist. He was holding his twin katanas gently, one in each hand. He draws Puma's sword lightly, crosses the dojo and hands it back hilt first. He jumps away, the katanas back in their right hands and takes up an odd Ninjitsu position; one sword vertically and horizontally inverted and rose above the other. The second sword was resting by its tip on the ground. Paradox smirked. "It's been a while since I've had an opponent, let's see what you've got."

He slowly flexed his neck from side to side and then slowly loosened his joints, still in the ninjitsu position. Then he was ready, his whole body ready and he focused, waiting for Puma's response. He wanted to fight and he was looking to hurt.

Puma grins slightly as well. He throws the heavy practice katana to the other wall; it slides in and again stays suspended.  
"Sorry, I had no intention of insult."

Puma then returns to the weapons rack, "Two weapons, right?" He then pulls a solid steel tonfa from the rack, and keeps it on his left hand. He then moves to take a kodachi from its sheath. "If you don't mind, I prefer a more defensive take on things."  
Puma returns to his mark across from Paradox, the long end of the tonfa against Puma's forearm, and the kodachi at his side, ready for any kind of attack. "Bring it. Sparks, crank up that music from that movie sound track, the one from when that black dude was training the white dude."

Paradox smirked; he liked Puma's choice of weaponry. He settled into position once more and watched Puma's position carefully. Then without any warning or hesitation he darted forward, the steel tip of the lower katana flashing upwards towards Puma's chin. Paradox's eyes were on Puma, watching his reaction. He wanted to test Puma's speed, strength and concentration before he attempted to put any real force into his attacks. His katanas were longer than either the tonfa or the short sword so he knew he was out of distance from either.

Puma grins, and moves his chin to the side dodging the blade. He then commences to move into Paradox's open defense, and raises his Kodachi to Paradox's neck, the blade a millimeter from his throat. Puma's tonfa remains in a defensive position ready to block the other Katana.

Paradox quickly twists the katana inwards, the blade resting across the side of Puma's head. With the other Katana, he knocked the tonfa downwards and Paradox cartwheels left, moving away and around Puma, then continues to evaluate his opponent. He darts forward again, this time a blow aimed at the body of Puma, a quick inside blow with the right katana aiming to shatter his defense.

Puma spins his tonfa, long end out, aims a strike at Paradox's right hand holding his katana. His kodachi spins into a position for a down cut slash aimed for Paradox's left katana hand and blunt sides it on the inside at the last second throwing the katana out to Paradox's left. He then throws Paradox's defense open and kicks him square in the chest.

Paradox's right knee comes up, blocking the kick on his chest. He grunts with pain as his shin throbs, he brings his right arm up quickly, the katana and tonfa grinding for a few seconds. With little hesitation, Paradox drops down on to his right foot, pulling Puma's leg downwards and out of position and then aims an outer crescent kick at Puma's head. His well trained left foot speeding with well practiced precision. His left katana crosses in under his leg aiming for Puma's stomach. He was enjoying this, Puma was a decent opponent who wouldn't fall apart as quick as most.

With his tonfa still locked in position with Paradox's right katana, Puma doesn't have much of a defense left to block the kick, but he uses his kodachi to parry to katana thrust. Using the momentum from his arm he rotates with his tonfa breaking the lock, and ducks in time to doge the kick. Using all his momentum, Puma goes into a leg sweep that is aimed right for Paradox's left foot that has remained unprotected, using his tonfa tip, sitting on the ground, as the center point for his main rotation and balance.

Paradox jumps neatly in the air, that being the only real defense he has and flips in the air, the jump parries him a long way and he lands steadily on both feet. He smiles and his eyes flash with malevolence. He takes on a new stance, his left leg forward, his katanas crossed on his chest and he waits for Puma to attack again.

As Paradox leaps, Puma raises his kodachi and slices into Paradox's uniform, freeing the fabric from it's binds along his legs they now hang freely. When Paradox lands and sets his katana up, Puma performs the Jodan-waza, Kiri Otoshi on the cross point between the blades, and punches with the tonfa's long end right into Paradox's forehead.

This is it. Puma thinks.

Preparing for the Kiri Kudashi, Puma lifts off from the ground with his tonfa's tip still on Paradox's forehead and using it for his point of balance. He brings his kodachi up and around to Paradox's throat and lands as he holds the blunt side to him ready as though this was the finish.

There is a crash of grinding metal, the crossed katanas drawing Puma's kodachi over his head and also knocking the tonfa up and off his forehead. Paradox drops both katanas and drops down onto his right hand, using it to support him; he kicks twice into Puma's unprotected chest, and then rolls back off the hand, picking up both katanas as he does.

He helps Puma rise to his feet. "You're good my friend. The best opponent I've had in a while. It's time for me to go, though I look forward to a rematch."

Paradox's image vanishes.

Puma takes a deep meditative breath and logs out.


End file.
